Folding attachment for sewing-machines.



PATENTED MAY23Q1905.

v No. 790,560.

' J.-H. DE NIKE. I

FOLDING ATTACHMENT FOR SEWING MACHINE-8..

APPLICATION FILED 1230.10, 1901.

2 sums-51mm: 1.

PATENTED MAY 23, 1905.

J. HQDE NIKE. I FOLDING ATTACHMENT FOR SEWING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED DBO. 10, 1901.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

attorney.

UN TED STATES Patented May 23, 1905.

PAT NT OFFICE.

FOLDING ATTACHMENT FOR SEWING-MACHINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 790,560, dated May 23, 1905.

Application filed December 10, 1901. Serial No. 85,318. I I

' To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J OSEPH I-I. DE NIKE, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Albany, in the county of Albany and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Folding Attachments for Sewing-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a sewing-machine for forming and assembling with the body fabric of a shirt or shirt-waist front and sewing thereto a lined facing-piece at one operation; and it consists in the novel features-of parts and combinations and arrangements of parts hereinafter described, and set forth in the claims.

The object of this invention is to combine with a two-needle sewing-machine mechanical devices which may automatically infold within a facing-piece of a shirt-waist a lining-piece and assemble said two pieces with the body fabricof a shirt-waist front and sew them simultaneously together and with said body fabric at a single operation by the operator.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will be made clear and be pointed out in the claims when taken in connectiolrwith the drawings, in two sheets, in which- Figure 1 is an end view of a head of a sewing-machine (a portion thereof) material-supporting bed, one of the two needle-bars and its needle, presser, device for enveloping within the front facing-piece a lining-piece, and a device for folding a lower facing-piece and running the same with the edge margin of the body fabric of a front portion of a shirt-waist rearward for having assembled with them the front facing-piece enveloping said lining-piece, said two devices being shown at line 2 in Fig. 1.

in section. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same with head of machine in section at line 1 in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a view of the same, taken Fig. 4 is a view from above of the parts of the upper one of two devices operating to place and assemble and lead the assembled parts to be sewed together to the needles. Fig. 5 is a plan of the lowest one of said two devices when exposed to view when the upper one of said devices is turned from position shown by full lines 1n Fig. 1 to that indicated by arrows in the same figure. Fig. 6 is a section taken at line 3 in Fig. 5. Fig. 7 is a section taken at line t in Fig. 5. Fig. 8 is a section taken at line 5 in Fig. 4. Fig. 9 is a section taken at line 6 in Fig. 4:, and Fig. 10 is a perspective view of the sev-' eral pieces of fabric when formed and assembled and sewed together by two-lines of stitchings in one operation and when all the assembled pieces are being moved to the needles by the feeding device of a sewing-machine.

Similar letters of reference refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

In the drawings, A is a head of a suitable sewing-machine. Bis the bed for supporting the material operated with. A is a reciprocating needle-bar, which bar may be ,op-

'erated by any suitable mechanism (not shown) as heretofore employed. A is a yoking-bar secured to the lower end of said reciprocating needle-bar, and a a are needles suitably secured to said yoking-bar. B is the presser, and B the feeding device below the said presser.

All the above-mentioned parts are so well known to the trade that a particular description of the same is unnecessary.

In this invention I employ two fabric-assembling devices C and D, the device G for holding the edge margins e e of lower facing fabric E. Fig. 10, and placing and holding said piece beneath the margin portion f of fabric piece F, forming a body-piece of one-half of a shirt-waist front, the other device, D, for folding the edge margins g g of the front facing-piece G over the edge margins h It of lining-piece H, as shown in the same figure, which two devices 0 and D cooperate to as semble the four pieces E, F, G, and H and deliver them at a point near needlesa a to be fed progressively rearward to beneath the same and beneath the presser B by means of a suitable feeding mechanism I operated by suitable mechanism (not shown) provided for moving the fabric rearward, as is practiced in sewing-machines, when the said assembled pieces will be sewed together by the two lines of stitchings s s, as shown in Fig. 10.

The lower fabric-assembling device C com:

prises the exterior piece C and upper side piece 0 the latter being between the bentover side flanges c 0 and horizontal wall portions 0 of exterior piece C and secured by any suitable means to the upper side 0 of the said upper side piece C yet preferably by solder at the line of edges 0 0 of the bentover flanges 0 c, Figs. 7 and 9. These two pieces G and C are made of any suitable sheet metal and both with a tapering form from front end 0 to near end 0 as shown in Fig. 5, and producing between the upper side piece and the horizontal wall portion 0 of exterior piece C an opening of suitable form for passage of the body of the lower facingpiece E rearward at the same time, while the edge margins c of upper side pieces C, which are extended laterally to within a short distance from sides 0 of exterior piece C, allow the edge margins e e of lower facing-piece E, Fig. 10, to be progressively turned up and then flat down on the upper side of the edge margins of interior piece 0 and then landed within opening (1* between the said piece C and the bent-over flanges c c and the edge margins c of the upper side piece C, and

thereby produce in said lower facing-piece E i the folded portions E E, Fig. 10. This assembling device C is provided with a suitable attaching device I, secured to the lower side of the exterior piece C and having in it aslotform opening a, through which a clampingscrew 1 passes and screws into the bed-plate of the machine, as indicated by dotted linesin Fig. 1, so as to hold said device O securely fixed in place on the said plate. The slotform opening 5 allows the said device to be adjusted in longitudinal direction either way and be fixed as may be found to be advantageous. Opening J is provided in the upper side piece 0 and communicates with passageway C for permitting the operator to touch the fabric of the lower facing-piece E with her finger and move it rearward in direction of arrow 1, Fig. 5, and toward the needles when said piece E is first entered into the said passage-way C The upper assembling device D comprises the upper piece D, interior piece D, and lower side piece D made tapering, respectively, from front end of this device in direction toward the rearward end, as shown and indicated by arrow 2 in Fig. 4. These pieces D, D, and D together produce opening K for passage of the front facing-piece and opening K for passage of the lining-piece. The upper piece D extends to the rear end of the assembling device D and to a point preferably a little in advance of the delivery end of the lower assembling device C and consists, preferably, of a single piece of sheet metal having its front end Zof greater width than the rear end (P and made, preferably, concave in form of its inner side (Z which inner side is progressively flattened, as shown by Figs. 8

and 9, as it runs rearward. The lateral side margin portions (Z" (Z of piece D is turned down and inwardly, as shown in Figs. 8 and 9, and is out of touch with the side margins cl (Z of interior piece D so as to produce a suitable opening between the said parts, which opening Z" supplements the opening K through which the front faci ng-piece ir passes. These supplemental openings 1'. Z", produced as described, commence narrow at the front end of piece D and gradually grow wider as they run rearward, as indicated by dotted lines A in Fig. 4. The interior piece I) is of sheet metal and begins at a short distance back from the front end of upper piece I) and runs rearward within a distance of one inch, or more or less, from the front end of piece I), as shown in Figs. 1 and 4, and is secured in place, preferably by solder, to the upturned edges (l of margins (1 of piece I), as shown in Figs. 3, 4, 5, and G. The lowerside piece I) is of sheet metal and extends from a point preferably corresponding with the front end of the interior piece I) and runs rearward to a point corresponding to the point of rear end terminal of the upper piece I). This lower side piece has its lateral side margins r/ bent upward and secured, preferably by means of solder, to the lower side of interior piece l)" or to the edge margins (1 01 piece I). Between the interior piece D and lower side piece D is opening L, which communicates with opening K for passage of a suitable lining-piece H singly rearward into the forward portion of opening K and be in situation against the lower side of facing-piece (i, Fig. 10, and between the folding of the side margins g f the same. so that said lining-piece and facing-piece may move rearward, the former enveloped within the latter, as shown at the lower end of drawings, Fig. 10, with both pieces assembled as shown for joint passage to the delivery end of assemblingdevice l) to be together on the assembled lower facingpiece E and margin portion of body fabric F in order (shown in Fig. 10) to be carried rearward by the feeding mechanism to beneath the two needles and by them to be sewed together with two parallel lines s a of stitchings made simultaneously and as shown in Fig. It).

The upper fabric-assembling device I) may be supported at a suitable angle in relation to the lower fabric-assembling device and with its discharge end between the needles (I and the discharge of device C by any suitable mechanism, yet I prefer to employ a suitable arm M, which may be pivoted, by means of pivot M, directly to the head A of the machine or to a suitable bracket N, secured to said head. Although this arm M may consist of a suitable single piece, yet I prefer to make it to comprise two parts M and M, the latter having connected with it the inclined horizontal piece M which is suitably secured to the lower side of device D, and the other part, M,

having its upper end so formed as to lie close tion in relation to device C as required.

These parts M M are adjustably connected by means of slot m in one of said parts and binding-screws m m, Fig. l.

The manner in which the several parts operate is as follows: The operator will raise device D clear of device C, then insert into passage-way O of device C a suitable piece of fabric for folding in form of fabric E and at the same time place a margin portion f on upper side of turned-down flanges c 0, with margin f relatively over one fold e of piece E and with its edge at a short distance from the opposite side fold 6. She will then enter a piece of fabric for folding it in'the form of a facing-piece G into the opening K from its front end and enter lining-piece H into opening K, and these pieces will be moved forward until passed to the delivery end of said device D, (the operator using her finger through finger-opening J for moving fabric G forward.) The operator will now move the fabric for the several pieces E, F, G, and H forward at one time to' beneath the two needles 0 a, when the sewing-machine will be set in motion, when the feeding device willprogressively move all said pieces rearward, While the needles will be operated to sew them togetherby two lines of stitchings s s, which will be run parallel. By this invention but oneoperation is had, while by the old manner of forming and assembling the four pieces of {lalaric four operations Were required to be Havingdescribed my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 1s-- 1. In combination, a sewing machine having a presser-foot', a folding device mounted to be moved toward or from said presserfoot, the folding device comprising a guide for a strip of fabric and a guide to receive a second strip ,ofifabric; the latter guide having means to fold the edges 'of the second strip around the edges of the first strip, and means for guiding a third piece of fabric under the presser-foot to be stitched to the before-mentioned strips of fabric, substantially as described.

' 2. The combination with a sewing-machine, of an upper folder and a lower folder mounted adjacent the needle of the sewing-machine and collectively adapted to deliver four individual assembled pieces of fabric thereto,the upper folder comprising a guide for a piece of fabric and a folding-guide to fold a second piece of fabric about the first fabric and the lower folder comprising a folding-guide to fold the edges of a third fabric and support a fourth fabric intermediate the folders, said folders being arrangedin alinement to deliver said four pieces of fabric to the needle.

JOSEPH H. DE NIKE.

Witnesses:

ALEX. SELKIRK, CHARLES SELKIRK. 

